Nonlinear control of high-frequency phonons in spider silk.

Spider dragline silk possesses superior mechanical properties compared with synthetic polymers with similar chemical structure due to its hierarchical structure comprised of partially crystalline oriented nanofibrils. To date, silk's dynamic mechanical properties have been largely unexplored. Here we report an indirect hypersonic phononic bandgap and an anomalous dispersion of the acoustic-like branch from inelastic (Brillouin) light scattering experiments under varying applied elastic strains.

25th anniversary article: ordered polymer structures for the engineering of photons and phonons.

The engineering of optical and acoustic material functionalities via construction of ordered local and global architectures on various length scales commensurate with and well below the characteristic length scales of photons and phonons in the material is an indispensable and powerful means to develop novel materials. In the current mature status of photonics, polymers hold a pivotal role in various application areas such as light-emission, sensing, energy, and displays, with exclusive advantages despite their relatively low dielectric constants. Moreover, in the nascent field of phononics, polymers are expected to be a superior material platform due to the ability for readily fabricated complex polymer structures possessing a wide range of mechanical behaviors, complete phononic bandgaps, and resonant architectures.

Combining pattern instability and shape-memory hysteresis for phononic switching.

We report a fully reversible and robust shape-memory effect in a two-dimensional nanoscale periodic structure composed of three steps, the elastic instability governing the transformation, the plasticity that locks in the transformed pattern as a result of an increase in glass transition temperature (T(g)), and the subsequent elastic recovery due to the vapor-induced decrease in T(g). Solvent swelling of a cross-linked epoxy/air cylinder structure induces an elastic instability that causes a reversible change in the shape of the void regions from circular to oval. The pattern symmetry changes from symmorphic p6mm to nonsymmorphic p2gg brought via the introduction of new glide symmetry elements and leads to a significant change in the phononic band structure, specifically in the opening of a new narrow-band gap due to anticrossing of bands, quite distinct from gaps originating from typical Bragg scattering.